Page 327 "...brought to mind Andy's telling me about Kingsley versus Newman."

Charles Kingsley

Cardinal John Newman

From page 327 of the book:  They brought to mind Andy McLean's telling me once about Kingsley versus Newman; Andy, even while intoxicated and deep inside the west Village, still couldn't get away from being Irish and being Catholic; even while drunk. The interesting facet to Andy's report was that he had taken the Anglican Kingsley's side against the Cardinal. He said he'd been doing that all his life, unable to leave his faith behind him and move onto better things. He would invariably, without fail, take sides against his faith while refusing to give it up.



The following is excerpted from Controversies: High Level Catholic
Apologetics by Karl Keating. San Francisco: Ignatius Press, 2001:

"The January 1864 issue of Macmillan's Magazine included a review of the 7th and 8th volume of J.A. Froude's History of England. The review was signed only with the initials "C.K."  The identity of the reviewer might have remained unknown to the general public if the writer had not included two sentences that were to ensure his lasting fame.  Were it not for 30 words, Charles Kingsley, professor of history at Cambridge, popular novelist, and anti-Catholic, would be known today only by specialists in Victorian studies.  He had the personal misfortune of penning a charge that was to induce the greatest work of its kind since Augustine's Confessions.  He imprudently wrote: 'Truth, for its own sake, had never been a virtue with the Roman clergy. Father Newman informs us that it
need not, and on the whole ought not to be.'
 
"Kingsley's review in Macmillan's Magazine precipitated a lengthy correspondence: Newman writing first to the publisher; Kingsley answering and identifying himself as the reviewer; Newman telling Kingsley that he was amazed that a man of his reputation should make such a charge against the Catholic clergy; Kingsley replying that he appreciated the tone of Newman's letter, which
'makes me feel to my very deep pleasure that my opinion of the meaning of your words was a mistaken one,' and back-handedly apologizing in a proposed letter to the editor in which he expressed his 'hearty pleasure at finding Newman on the side of Truth, in this, or any other, matter.' So it continued, with Kingsley conspicuously failing to substantiate his charge."

Both men published pamphlets outlining what their
arguments were.  Kingsley wrapped up his pamphlet by
stating:

"I am henceforth in doubt and fear, as much as an honest man can be, concerning every word Dr. Newman may write.  Yes, I am afraid that I must say it once more--Truth is not honoured among these men [Catholic priests] for its own sake."

Newman put forth: "A man may be annoyed that he cannot work out a mathematical problem,
of which the answer is or is not given to him, without doubting that it admits of an answer, or that a particular answer is the true one."

(That is, Catholics need not abandon their faith on realizing they cannot explain all of it to their opponents' or their own satisfaction.)